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UCLA Basketball: Bruins Make Several Way-Too-Early Top 25 Polls

By Mike Regalado

Jan 30, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Thomas Welsh (40) gets a high five from head coach Steve Alford as he leaves the game in the second half against the Washington State Cougars Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won 83-50. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 30, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Thomas Welsh (40) gets a high five from head coach Steve Alford as he leaves the game in the second half against the Washington State Cougars Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won 83-50. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
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The UCLA Basketball team is expected to make a splash next season which is being supported by several sports news outlets having the Bruins in their way-too-early Top 25 polls.

Just as it is tradition to watch the NCAA Basketball National Championship Game the first Monday in April, it is also tradition to make way-too-early Top 25 polls the Tuesday after.

With Villanova being crowned last night, we are already moving forward to next season. For college basketball fans, it will be a long summer until its return, so in the meantime, let us have a little fun with it.

Already there are several early polls emerging from various sources and the UCLA Basketball team is spread out all over several of these polls.

Many critics are looking for the fashionable #1 pick, whether it be Nova, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina or some other trendy choice, but for us at Go Joe Bruin, we are solely concerned about UCLA Basketball, so let us check out where the Bruins have ended up in many sports news’ Top 25.

ESPN: #24

SB Nation: #22

The Big Lead: #22

The Sporting News: #14

USA Today: #12

NBC Sports: #19

CBS Sports: #9

There are more out there, but from what we can tell from these numbers, critics have their own idea of how good the Bruins will be in 2016-17. The main theme here is that UCLA will have an overall improvement.

We even asked UCLA fans on Twitter about where they thought the Bruins should start the season.

For the most part, it seems that the Bruins, who did not make this last NCAA Tournament, are expected to do better. The majority of UCLA Basketball fans (via the Go Joe Bruin Twitter), think the Bruins will be a Top 25 team, ranging from #16-25.

The main reason for this, despite finishing 15-17 this season, are the reinforcements that UCLA will be bringing in the fall in the form of four highly-touted recruits. Lonzo Ball, T.J. Leaf, Ike Anigbogu and Kobe Paras will be looking to dramatically improve the standing of the Bruins and hopefully get them back to the NCAA Tournament.

More from Go Joe Bruin

Next: UCLA Basketball Starts Anew Looking Toward Next Season

Though that is a lot to put on the young Bruins, we have all seen how a few amazing freshmen can change a program. Hopefully we see that in Westwood this fall.